A fifth of UK workers using a personal device for work as part of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme would not tell their employer about a potential threat to business they had caused as a result of accessing porn and/or adult websites. That is according to a survey by Elitetele.com, an internet services company. One in four women (24 per cent) and one in five men (21 per cent) admitted they would be too embarrassed to inform their employer, with 7 per cent of both sexes claiming they would only pluck up the courage to tell after one week and 2 per cent within a month, by which time a business could be severely compromised by cyber criminals.
The survey of 2000 UK workers by One Poll found that on average, a fifth (21 per cent) had accessed pornography and/or adult websites on a personal device which was also used for work (26 per cent of men and 18 per cent of women). One in ten (15 per cent of men and 8 per cent of women) admitted to viewing such content on a corporate issued device. Alarmingly, one in four (25 per cent) claimed they were unaware visiting such websites could lead to their device being infected by malicious viruses or bugs that could compromise the data on their device.
Respondents also said that the discovery they had accessed such content was the most embarrassing thing their employer could uncover as a result of updating their BYOD device with the latest security settings. A third of respondents (31 per cent) claimed finding out they had viewed porn and/or adult websites would leave them more red-faced than uncovering evidence of job hunting (27 per cent) derogatory remarks made about a colleague (17 per cent) a criminal conviction (11 per cent) an addiction to gambling, drugs or alcohol (11 per cent) or participation in an office romance (10 per cent).
Russell Horton, Chief Operating Officer at Elitetele.com comments, ‘Businesses want to give staff access to devices which can improve productivity and mobility, but they need to ensure these are equipped and updated with the latest technology to secure corporate networks from increasingly complex threats.
“Our survey shows 72 per cent of the workforce aged between 18 and 44 have accessed porn and/or adult websites on a personal device used as part of a BYOD scheme. Such websites can often infect visitors automatically when they browse and typically visitors are unlikely to complain to those running the online service, the police or their boss because of the embarrassment involved. This provides cyber criminals with the opportunity to peruse poorly secured corporate networks at leisure because nobody has raised the alarm and nothing is being done to stop them. Businesses should look at putting a Unified Threat Management facility in place alongside robust BYOD policies to safeguard against such intrusions, providing peace of mind that they have the best possible defence against cyber sleuths.”
